Saving Lives With Emergency Care in Rural Uganda

Valentine's Day is here!  As you are thinking about your loved ones, we, at Global Emergency Care Collaborative, wanted to update you on the work that is so near and dear to our "hearts".  

GECC is proud to announce the "graduation" of its newest six trainees!  Alfunsi, Irene, Hillary, Richard, Serena, and Christine have graduated from the junior ("student") level to the senior ("teacher") level.  To honor this achievement, they celebrated in a graduation ceremony in January.  They will now solidify their new emergency care skills over the next year through clinical work and peer education.  After they complete their senior year, they will become fully qualified Emergency Care Practitioners (ECPs), fully adept at independently diagnosing and treating emergency patients who desperately need their help!

The work these ECPs are doing is truly amazing.  An 11 month old boy was seen in the Emergency Department in December with bloody diarrhea.  One of the ECPs recognized that the child could have an emergency condition called "intussusception" which is a telescoping of the bowel.  She did a bedside ultrasound and confirmed the diagnosis and got the child to surgery.  One of the Ugandan doctors wrote us, 

"What I find interesting is ECP's thought of the need for an abdominal ultra sound despite the absence of abdominal pain or distention. Without bed side ultrasound this boy could have been treated as a case of dysentery and would most likely deteriorate.  Thanks for the great work in the ED"

Without the ECPs, this child would be another statistic, another one of the nearly 7 million children who needlessly died last year.  But thanks to the ECPs, thanks to GECC, and THANKS TO YOU, his life was saved.  Thank you again for being part of the solution, and please consider renewing your donation and spreading the word about our work to continue helping those who need it most!

Our sincere thanks,

The GECC team